With the increasing costs of drugs, customers as a whole are a highly price-sensitive group. Indeed, studies have shown that the likelihood of a customer purchasing drugs is strongly correlated with the customer's out-of-pocket amount for the drugs. As an example, customers may select one drug over another based upon a lower co-pay amount. As another example, a customer may select (or request a prescription for) a drug that is covered by one or more third-party payors (e.g., an insurance plan) as opposed to a drug that is not covered by the third-party payors.
Given that customers are a price-sensitive group, it is not usual to expect that customers may stop taking a drug or may switch to a cheaper drug if the customer's out-of-pocket amount increases. The customer's out-of-pocket amount may increase, for example, where the employer changes the types of drugs that will be covered under a preferred status under its insurance plan. Likewise, a customer's out-of-pocket amount may increase where an insurer or other third-party payor changes the pharmaceutical manufacturers and/or drugs that are preferred. In these situations, the pharmaceutical manufacturers may lose control over the customer's out-of-pocket amount for its drugs, thereby risking that the customer will stop taking its drugs.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for systems and methods that enables pharmaceutical manufacturers can retain or shift their drug market share.